George Crumb

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American composer George Crumb came to be indelibly linked with avant-garde and contemporary classical music of the 20th century. A professor at the University of Pennsylvania from the 1960s to the 1990s, Crumb was praised for his cutting edge compositions, using what the New York Times called “exotically sensual sound colors” and “extravagantly mystical allusions.” The Nonesuch recording of his Ancient Voices of Children in 1970 become a defining album of the label’s early years.

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Born in 1929 in Charleston, West Virginia, American composer George Crumb came to be indelibly linked with avant-garde and contemporary classical music of the 20th century. Crumb completed his undergraduate studies at the Mason College of Music in Charleston and went on to earn a Master’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, followed by postgraduate studies at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin and a doctorate from the University of Michigan.

Even before earning his doctorate, George Crumb began teaching at various universities throughout America, his longest tenure at the University of Pennsylvania, from the 1960s to the 1990s. At the same time, Crumb was being praised for his cutting edge compositions that often explored unusual timbres and extended instrumental techniques, using what the New York Times called “exotically sensual sound colors” and “extravagantly mystical allusions.” In the process, the composer garnered numerous awards, including a Fulbright Scholarship, a Guggenheim grant, a Pulitzer Prize, six honorary degrees, and a Grammy Award.

The Nonesuch recordings of Crumb’s Ancient Voices of Children, a song-cycle based on texts by Garcia Lorca, performed by Jan DeGaetani and the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble and recorded in 1970, and his Music for a Summer Evening (Makrokosmos III), recorded in 1975, would become a defining album of the label’s early years.

George Crumb died on February 6, 2022, at the age of 92.

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Latest Release

  • July 15, 1987

    Crumb’s affinity for what the New York Times describes as “exotically sensual sound colors” and “extravagantly mystical allusions” is on full display in the two pieces featured here: Ancient Voices for Children, a song-cycle based on texts by Garcia Lorca, and Music for a Summer Evening (Makrokosmos III), which both references Bartók’s influence on the composer and uses techniques and sonorities uniquely Crumb’s own.

News

  • October 24, 2023

    Kronos Quartet’s award-winning 1990 album Black Angels will be released on vinyl on February 16, 2024, to coincide with Kronos Quartet: Five Decades, a year-long celebration of the quartet’s 50th anniversary. First released in 1990, the album features George Crumb’s title piece, which inspired David Harrington to found the quartet in 1973, and works by Charles Ives, István Márta, Thomas Tallis, and Dmitri Shostakovich. The fourth side of the vinyl is an etching of an illustration created especially for this purpose by Matt Mahurin, whose work is featured on the original album cover. The Evening Standard included Black Angels among its “100 Definitive Classical Albums of the 20th Century.”

  • February 7, 2022

    American composer George Crumb died at his home in Pennsylvania on Sunday at the age of 92. The Nonesuch recording of his Ancient Voices of Children, a song-cycle based on texts by Garcia Lorca, performed by Jan DeGaetani and the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, become a defining album of the label’s early years. Kronos Quartet's recording of his Vietnam War protest piece Black Angels, which Kronos founder David Harrington has credited with helping to inspire the group's formation, was included among the Evening Standard's 100 Definitive Classical Albums of the 20th Century.

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About George Crumb

  • Born in 1929 in Charleston, West Virginia, American composer George Crumb came to be indelibly linked with avant-garde and contemporary classical music of the 20th century. Crumb completed his undergraduate studies at the Mason College of Music in Charleston and went on to earn a Master’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, followed by postgraduate studies at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin and a doctorate from the University of Michigan.

    Even before earning his doctorate, George Crumb began teaching at various universities throughout America, his longest tenure at the University of Pennsylvania, from the 1960s to the 1990s. At the same time, Crumb was being praised for his cutting edge compositions that often explored unusual timbres and extended instrumental techniques, using what the New York Times called “exotically sensual sound colors” and “extravagantly mystical allusions.” In the process, the composer garnered numerous awards, including a Fulbright Scholarship, a Guggenheim grant, a Pulitzer Prize, six honorary degrees, and a Grammy Award.

    The Nonesuch recordings of Crumb’s Ancient Voices of Children, a song-cycle based on texts by Garcia Lorca, performed by Jan DeGaetani and the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble and recorded in 1970, and his Music for a Summer Evening (Makrokosmos III), recorded in 1975, would become a defining album of the label’s early years.

    George Crumb died on February 6, 2022, at the age of 92.

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